


Latticework

by ashangel101010



Series: Co-Guardian Vader [7]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Darth Sidious Knows This, Darth Vader Is Not a Great Liar, Fatherhood, Gen, Toddler Armitage Hux, Triclops is Rama, silent films
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:12:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26290162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashangel101010/pseuds/ashangel101010
Summary: The son stars in silent holofilms.
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker | Darth Vader & Triclops, Armitage Hux & Darth Vader, Armitage Hux & Triclops, Sheev Palpatine | Darth Sidious & Darth Vader
Series: Co-Guardian Vader [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1532138
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	Latticework

**Author's Note:**

> I own nothing in the Star Wars universe or anything in any universe; I just like writing stories in that universe.

Latticework

*

Main Theme- Sea Above, Sky Below by Dirty Three feat. Nick Cave

*

The white web glitters under the full moon. It’s overtaken the castle’s crumbling ramparts and wind-whittled towers. The stone gargoyles slumber in their cocoons and miss the arrival of a lost woman walking up the cracked steps in her white heels. She wears the white dress of a pure-hearted maiden and raps twice on the door as etiquette demands. The door opens by itself, and her pale eyes look around for a cause. Then, the lightning crashes through the sky, and she flings herself inside the darkness.

 ** _“Hello? My hover car broke down, and there’s a frightful storm—”_**

Suddenly, illumination from a spiral of candelabras reveal a grand staircase of Wayland marble. The door is bright, a red in the white and black, and our intrepid maiden goes up the clean steps. She pauses when a black spider, about the size of a baby’s fist, skitters across the floor. She crushes it with the full force of her stiletto and then goes inside.

The webs are inside and act room dressing. They are thin sheets waving like tattered curtains. The room spins slowly. She looks up with her pale eyes. Her lovely mouth distorts into a silent scream.

The spiders descend from the gaping ceiling.

She runs and falls into the web. She flails as the threads stick to her like barbs. She screams and screams until a young man appears in her clouded vision. His long, white hair is held back by a hair tie while a black cloche hat adorns his head like a crown. He has dark rings under his eyes and painted lips. His eyes are green, the only color in this world.

And she screams.

*

The holofilm ends with chintzy credits and only one name mattered to Vader: _Rama Moore_.

“I was wondering what you had in that box. I thought it was some propaganda holos for babies.” Rama muses as he appears in the nursery dressed in a simple black tunic and pants. Black lace adorns his delicate hands. Armitage claps his small hands and smiles with his pearl-white teeth. 

“Sly Moore is your mother.” Vader proclaims coldly.

“Vader, I’d thought you would learn by now that jealously does you no good.” His Master’s son stands barefooted on one of Naboo’s foam letters.

“My Master and your mother were—”

“Don’t be naïve, Dark Lord of the Sith, my father is incapable of loving anyone, not even himself.” He scoffs haughtily, but his green eyes dim with a private sadness.

“Then, how?”

“She stole his DNA and impregnated herself. Very unsexy.” He turns his attention back to the holoscreen. “That was the second short film I did for Ch’been; he was still figuring out how much _dialogue_ to put in his silent features. All of his short films are experiments for his full-length features. I was in five of those, and they never ran past the eighty minute mark.”

“How many films have you been in?”

“I did fifteen short films and six full-features. All of them were silent and directed by Ch’been. I’m one of the few humans he uses in his films, always in sinister or downright villainous roles, the fun ones! Most of my wardrobe is supplemented by his films.” 

“How do you have time to shoot so many of those?”

“It’s not like Maratelle or Brendol need me all the time, and it’s nice to do something artistic.” He kneels down and plucks Armitage from Vader’s loose grip. “Even Armitage is in one.”

“Which one?”

“ _The Spiderling_ , the conclusion to _The_ _Spider Man_ series. Don’t worry, Lord Vader, it’s a short film." 

*

Humanity is the monster. He wears a sharp face with an equally sharp nose. His fingers are long and thin, but strong enough to spin threads that no hero can hope to break. His eyes mock innocence. His mouth smiles thinly. The world is trapped in its web.

His son hatches from oblong sac and light goo messes the floor. The son uses his chubby hands to wipe away the goo and claps his sticky hands. The Spider Man kneels and lets those sticky hands grasp his nose.

**_The father and son—_ **

“You’re thinking in black and white, my Apprentince.” His Master’s baritone pulls him away from his memories and back into the Sith Shrine. He sees a thin smile on his Master’s ruined face.

“I was just remembering a holofilm.” Vader admits and hopes that this inquiry will end quickly.

“I had no idea you cared for such… _entertainment_.” Disdain makes the furrows twist across his Master’s moon-white face. His Master is a generous lover of the fine arts, particularly of the opera.

“The high priestess claimed that the Rebels were hiding in an arthouse. They were not.”

“And did you believe that these _films_ could lead you to them?” His Master taunts. “The holofilm offered you no clue to where the Rebels were hiding, but it gave you the child. Your thoughts dwell on this fictional child.”

“He came from a spider egg.”

“The viscosity of the birthing fluids are mildly impressive for something with a limited budget.” His Master returns to the task at hand. “But the _special effects_ don’t engage you as much as the child’s possibility. What your son should have been if that coward Kenobi didn’t steal him away.”

“And he will join us.” Vader reminds him of the solemn promise he made nearly two months after the Death Star’s destruction. After his Master formally revealed Luke’s origins to him, and Vader _feigned_ shock. His Master didn’t believe his performance then, but he hopes that his word still holds value.

“In time.”

*

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s Comments- Here are the links: 
> 
> Here is an image of a cloche hat that looks very similar one I own and I imagined on Rama in The Spider’s Web: [Link](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/6172Fa2Us-L._AC_UL1500_.jpg)
> 
> The song mentioned in the main theme is what I’d imagine playing for the silent holofilm: [Link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCvgkDjUR24)
> 
> I recently watched Sunset Boulevard for free through Amazon Prime and it makes a great double feature with Mulholland Drive. It’s also the reason why I decided to have Rama be a silent holofilm actor. Supremely random note, the lyrics to Blind Guardian’s “Tanelorn (Into the Void)” is utterly perfect for Anakin/Vader, even though I’m not really into the song itself. Maybe it’ll grow on me. 
> 
> In the Legends/EU comic Vader’s Quest, Darth Vader finds out that the pilot who destroyed the Death Star was named Luke Skywalker, thus he finds out Luke is his son because no one else in the galaxy would have such a surname, and he finds out about a month after ANH. I think Palpatine either found out by the end of the comic or in some other comic. I didn’t really like the comic, but I still liked it more than Agent of the Empire, which was a SW-riff on James Bond but he works for the Empire. And from what I’ve read of the first issue summary on Amazon for Darth Vader (2020), it sounds like Vader will find out Luke’s origins, and I really hope it’s better than Vader’s Quest. 
> 
> Anyways, Vader’s focus on Armitage saved Palpatine from a heart attack. Let’s just say the eventual, messy family reunion will cause a lot of property damage. And tears.


End file.
